Uechi-Ryu.com

This is Dave Young's Forum. Can you really bridge the gap between reality and training? Between traditional karate and real world encounters? Absolutely, we will address in this forum why this transition is necessary and critical for survival, and provide suggestions on how to do this correctly. So come in and feel welcomed, but leave your egos at the door!

Bruce was an incredibly arrogant individual, but that kind of cockiness goes with the territory. If you think martial arts aren't full of egomaniacs, then you obviously have been practicing in a monestary somewhere. It's the testosterone schtic, the mano e mano thing.

Bruce was a great athlete and a bit of a rebel. His physical abilities are documented.

The weight training program Lee used during a stay in Hong Kong in 1965, indicated bicep curls of 80 pounds and 8 repetitions for endurance. This translates to an estimated one-repetition-maximum of 110 pounds, placing Lee in approximately the 100th percentile for the 121 to 140 pound weight class

- Wikipedia

So Bruce was really a small man. But his extraordinary strength-to-weight ratio allowed him to perform the magnificent feats that looked so good on camera. No matter what he practiced, pound for pound he was going to make it look good.

Bruce Lee demonstrating one-armed, two-finger pushup

Ya think I could have taught this man how to do some damage with some Uechi pointy things?

Bruce was also well-known for his ability to assimilate and integrate numerous martial methods.

Lee began his formal martial arts training at the age of 13 in Wing Chun Gung Fu under Hong Kong master Yip Man. Like most martial arts schools at that time, Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking student. Lee didn't finish Yip Man's curriculum.

It would not be until his arrival in the United States, however, that Lee began the process of creating his own style, which he would later teach at the martial arts schools he opened in Oakland and Los Angeles, California (named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute). After becoming dissatisfied with existing schools of martial arts, he later modified his style, which consisted mostly of elements of Wing Chun, with elements of Western Boxing and Fencing, and named it Jun Fan Gung Fu. Lee expanded this style over time, including elements from Muay Thai, Indo-Malay Silat, Panantukan, Sikaran, Bando, Catch Wrestling, Karate, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, and other arts. It would be much later that he would come to describe his style as Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist) or JKD.

By our modern standards he was one of the first well-known mixed martial artists. But by Chinese standards, this was the way they did things. The idea of styles is something foreign to many of the ancient Chinese. Many of these masters would choreograph custom forms for their students. For all we know, this is what Chou Tze Ho did for Uechi Kanbun.